Log 32
Day 119
Wednesday, September 17, 2008

4:45 AM CDT
Location: Clarksville, TN
Weather: 59* and no wind; forecast is for 82* and sunny today

It is one of those real early mornings today. I woke up early and got up a little before 4 am. I feel great now but will probably need a nap later. There are a lot of things I love about cruising and living on a boat...but on the top of the list are the mornings. I can’t wait to get up each day...no matter what we are doing...but when we are cruising each day I am even more excited. I also figured out a new “hot setup” this morning. Yesterday I mentioned that it stays dark later so I need a light in the morning. Bringing out a lamp to the helm area each morning was a pain, so I thought about it and came up with the idea to use one of Deb’s book lights. I clipped the book light to the top of my computer and “bingo” I have a light for the computer without bringing out a lamp. (Note; the entire helm area has lots of lights...but they are too bright...I just want a little light to work with).

It’s a beautiful morning...cool and no wind. Sitting on the back of the boat I am looking up at the town of Clarksville, TN all lit up and just a very short walk away. We are tied to the town’s free floating dock (with no water...but free 50 amp electric) which sits just off the channel of the Cumberland River and about 2 blocks from Clarksville’s downtown. The weather radar shows no rain anywhere near here and the forecast say it will be nice weather where we will be cruising for the next several days...actually they say it will be nice until next Friday...10 days from now.

Yesterday...we left the Lake Barkley Marina at 8:40 am and arrived at Clarksville, TN at 4 pm. The 67 mile trip up river (as we traveled south) was very pretty. It turned from a wide body of water (Lake Barkley) to a fairly normal river (Cumberland) and it will be this way all the way to Nashville. Actually the river would remind you of the Illinois River (very pretty with lots of trees) except the banks are much higher, and rocky, and the channel is much deeper. We also passed a couple of Civil War battle fields (can’t remember the names) that looked really cool. Once we arrived at Clarksville and got the boat settled down Deb and I decided to take a walk into town. I had talked to a guy on the dock at Green Turtle Bay and he told me there was a great brew pub in town that had the best pizza he had ever had...so we went in search of this place...and found it. I’m not sure if it was the best I ever had...but it was very good. We will be stopping here on our way back from Nashville...maybe we’ll go back. (We will definitely go into town again...it looked very nice and I’m sure they have more than one pub. Deb saw a few stores that looked interesting as well). Back at the boat it was not long before we retired for the night.

Side note: The heavy rains and flooding in the Midwest has caused lots of problems for other Loopers behind us. I belong to the America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA) and follow lots of Loopers...via email blogs. Many of these emails tell stories of several boats staged in different locations (from downtown Chicago to St. Louis) waiting for the rivers to crest and then get to a level they can travel on. Locks and rivers are closed from Chicago to Cairo where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi. Many of these boats have been waiting for over a week and may have to wait another week or more before they can head south. I am so glad we left when we did...because the rivers were in great shape and we had no issues. I really feel for those folks on the Illinois and Mississippi...they have a tough time ahead of them.

Today we will go 23 miles and go through Cheatam Lock and then another 9 miles to Ashland TN...our stop for tonight...and the last stop before Nashville. So today will be an easy day. Before we leave I need to see if I can fix our internet connection. For some reason our wireless modem stopped working yesterday and we can not log onto the internet without hooking the wireless card directly to our computer. There are certainly a lot worse problems we could have, but Deb and I really rely on the internet for cruising. Everything from weather...to paying our bills at home...to making reservations for slips. It’s an important tool, so I need to get it fixed as soon as possible. Maybe that’s why I got up so early?

I hope everyone is doing well...I’ll keep you posted.

BK.

This is a Kentucky prison (that looks like a castle) just up river from Green Turtle Bay Marina

A shot to show how close the channel is to the shore as we went the 2 miles off the Cumberland to Lake Barkley Marina
If you look closely you will see the house boat we parked next to at Lake Barkley Marina is also called Headquarters...only the 2nd one we have seen in all our years of boating.

Claudia will hate me for putting this picture on here...but this is how she looked trying to climb in the boat after we went swimming in a cove.
Steve and Claudia with us at Patti's restuarant in Grand Rivers, KY
Deb, Claudia, and Steve taking a dip to cool off in a Lake Barkley cove
Just one of the bass I have been catching...actually the biggest one.